"It was awful," said Mercedes Rojas Huerta, 57. She was sitting on a bench outside her home in Mexico City's trendy Condesa district on Friday, too frightened to go back inside. "It started to shake; the cars were going here and there. What do I do?"

About an hour after the quake, a magnitude 5.8 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca caused tall buildings in Mexico City to briefly sway again.

People comfort one another in the aftermath of the earthquake. (EDGARD GARRIDO/REUTERS)

Mexican Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente tweeted that there were no immediate reports of damages from the quake.

The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter that only material damages were reported near Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, but that shelters were opened for those fleeing damaged homes.

The Mexico City Red Cross said that the facade of a building collapsed in Mexico City's Condesa neighborhood, which was hit hard on Sept. 19. A video showed people walking through a dust cloud. But reporters at the scene later found no evidence of a collapse at the location given.